By Nate Raymond
BOSTON (Reuters) -An worker of French drugmaker Ipsen has agreed to plead responsible to illegally making greater than $262,000 by buying and selling on inside data he discovered about his firm’s plans to accumulate most cancers drug developer Epizyme (NASDAQ:) in 2022.
Dishant Gupta, Ipsen’s director of knowledge technique and operations, plans to plead responsible to securities fraud and is settling associated claims by the U.S. Securities and Change Fee, in accordance with filings in Boston federal courtroom on Tuesday.
A plea listening to is ready for Oct. 8. Jeffrey Lichtman, a lawyer for the 40-year-old New Jersey resident, in an e mail mentioned his consumer was working to resolve the case.
Ipsen mentioned it doesn’t touch upon authorized issues regarding present or former workers and was targeted on compliance with relevant legal guidelines.
Prosecutors mentioned that an Ipsen government throughout a gathering in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in March 2022 requested Gupta to assist him put collectively supplies associated to a possible acquisition of a most cancers drug and an unidentified drug firm’s belongings.
Days later, he met with Ipsen executives to debate attainable acquisitions within the oncology market, and by April 7, 2022, Gupta knew the most cancers drug and belongings Ipsen wished to accumulate belonged to Cambridge-based biotech Epizyme, the maker of the most cancers medicine Tazverik, prosecutors mentioned.
That day, he started shopping for Epizyme shares in his spouse’s brokerage account, in accordance with charging paperwork. He purchased extra within the days that adopted as the businesses mentioned a possible outright acquisition of Epizyme, prosecutors mentioned.
Gupta started conducting frequent web searches that authorities mentioned confirmed his consciousness of a possible deal, with searches for “Epizyme buyout” and “Epizyme takeover,” in accordance with prosecutors and the SEC.
Ipsen introduced its $247 million acquisition of Epizyme on June 27, 2022. Gupta then offered all of his Epizyme shares, netting him a revenue of greater than $262,000, prosecutors mentioned.
